Wang wishes Radcliffe full speed

Wang Junxia at first appears confused when you ask her about Paula Radcliffe. "Can you write her name down for me?" she asks. Once that is done and is translated into Chinese she smiles.

"Oh, I know her," she says. "Her marathon times are fantastic and I really want her to break my world record as well."

The record Wang is referring to is among the most controversial in athletics history, the 10,000 metres mark of 29min 31.78sec she set in 1993 and her coach Ma Junren claimed was down to a diet of turtle blood and caterpillar fungus.

Since then only Radcliffe has got within 30 seconds of a record cynics claim was more likely the result of a potent mixture of banned performance-enhancing drugs. "That's why I want Paula to break my record, to show that it can be done," says Wang. "I've always believed that the record has never been broken because people do not have the same opportunity that I had."

But success, which included winning the world 3,000m title in Stuttgart in 1993 and setting the world record for that distance, came at a high price.

Wang, dressed fashionably in expensive heels, looks the picture of health but she was forced to retire in 1997 at the age of 23 after a doctor warned that she had pushed herself beyond the limits of physical endurance. "I still suffer from constant headaches because I trained so hard," she reveals.

Ma's torturous training regime included running a marathon a day at high altitude and he did not accept illness or injury as an excuse for failing to complete it. As punishment Ma would take a stick to the slackers.

Wang fled Ma's tyranny in 1994 after a row over prize money that resulted in him stealing the Mercedes she won in Stuttgart. Time, however, has healed Wang's bitterness.

"I always feel gratitude to him," she says. "If he lifted a hand to me it was like a father towards his daughter because he wanted what was best for me."

After leaving Ma, Wang won the 1996 Olympic 5,000m gold medal in Atlanta, a glorious postscript for a woman still revered in China. "Everyone knows Ms Wang Junxia," interjects the translator. "She is the pride of the people."

Those Chinese who do not remember her as the greatest female distance runner in history will soon know Wang for her starring role in a new film, Running For Son. She plays a mother involved in a bitter custody battle with her child's natural parents.

Her rivalry with Radcliffe stretches back to 1992 when the Briton beat her over a snow-covered course in Boston to win the world junior cross-country title. "Ah yes, now I remember," says Wang, a huge grin lighting up her face.

"I had only been training for four months. It was my first trip outside of China. The snow. I remember Paula very well."

But Wang has no plans to come out of retirement in time to renew their rivalry for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. "Jogging is part of my life," she says. "I still run, but not for gold medals or world records - just for health and happiness."